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 Nelson Mandela Celebrates Ninety years !  Celluloid

Celebrities in Cannes  Leon H. Sullivan Summit report 
Defining Defence in Washington DC  Motor Racing in
Monaco  Paul Smith definitive designer  interview with
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GLOBAL PERSP EC TIVES | MON ACO GRAND PRIX 2008 GLOBAL P ERS P EC TIVES | MONACO GRAND PRIX 20 0 8

Je t-S e t t r avels : • The budgets are quickly eaten up. A decade and helmets are covered by logos for sponsors Beyonce. Yacht parties such as The Indian Em-
ago saw tyre costs as being near $1 million per which have a substantial cost attached. press commanded the attention of the young

The Monaco
season, wind tunnel testing for aerodynamic However, for the jet-set crowd the race al- and beautiful into the early hours as DJ David
purposes can cost a team around $50 million though the centre pie provides a two hour dis- Morales spun disks with beautiful dancers per-
per year. All considerable money. traction from the seemingly endless array of forming inside cages above the audience.

Grand Prix 2008

parties occurring in hotels and yachts across
• Teams make up the difference through gener- the marina. • Come Monday the Principality returns to
ating advertising revenues. For many years normal, crash barriers gone and hotels empty-
tobacco sponsorship has formed a major com- • Benetton impressario Flavio Briatori’s Billion- ing for the flights elsewhere in Europe or from

in review
ponent of advertising for companies which is aire Club was open in the Fairmont Hotel for Nice across the Atlantic to New York, recover-
changing following increasing legislation in the weekend and hosted high net worth par- ing for another year.
Europe and North America. Drivers uniforms tiers and the odd celebrity such as Jay-Z and

Imagine a sport with a viewership world-wide in excess of

350 million per event, where top teams spend in excess of
$200 million merely to compete and the stars are paid
salaries near $50 million. Surprisingly the sport is not an
American creation, but rather Formula One Motorsport led
by British master of ceremonies Bernie Ecclestone.
Whilst the business costs of participating are astounding,
the risks undertaken by drivers driving at speeds of up to
200 mph around tight race tracks are amazing, and it is a
testament to the sport that although tragedies do occur,
that are few and far between.

from left to right: left page: high speed pitstop where racing cars change tyres and are refuelled, often in less than 10 seconds, right page: overlooking the Principality of Monaco, Ferrari driver Philippe
Massa displayed on large screen over the harbour, cars racing up hill after turn 1 towards the Hotel de Paris and Casino.

By Jeffr ey Br adfor d The highlight of the Formula One calendar is undoubtedly the world-
famous street circuit in the Principality of Monaco on the South of
France which held its first Grand Prix in 1929.
The circuit itself takes the driver around the essential landmarks of the
small city-state. Uphill to The Hotel de Paris, Casino, the tunnel
­complex, the marina and chicanes around the swimming pool, then the
super-fast start finish straight. Then do it all again some seventy-eight
times to find the winner.
The event has become a key event in the jet-set calendar and an im-
pressive networking opportunity to meet leaders from the commercial
and celebrity worlds.
The race (qualifying held on Saturday, the actual race on Sunday) leads
to many of the streets being closed in the small Principality making
­selection of a haunt to observe the race critical. GlobalVision watched
the event from a vantage point on turn one (St. Devote) where you
could see the cars race uphill to Casino and also handle the chicane
f­ ollowing the tunnel complex. Others ob-
served the race from their vantage point on
a yacht, corporate hospitality or their pent-
house overlooking the track.
The race is always eventful and renowned as a
‘car breaker’ – the stresses and strains on
these state-of-the-art racing cars sometimes
overstress the engineering limits of the com-
ponents. Weather also plays a role – some-
times sunny, but by the Mediterranean coast, a
risk of short sharp rain showers. The weather
conditions play a major role in the key strate-
gic question of when to pit stop for fuel and
tyres, plus which type of tyres to employ.
The 2008 race saw sunshine, rain and
­excitement aplenty. Ferrari was successful
in winning the first two start places with
Lewis Hamilton of McLaren Mercedes on
the second row. Following the stately pa-
rade of rainbow coloured vehicles through
the parade lap the start saw a rapid effort by
Hamilton to overtake the rival cars of Ferrari
and establish a dominance over the race de-
spite variable weather – heavy rain, drizzle,
sun – to win the Monaco Grand Prix.
From our vantage point in the luxury Yacht
charter company, Edminston’s rooms we
could see, hear and enjoy the power, excite-
ment and grandeur of the Monaco environ-
ment from an ideal spot.
For the competing teams it was simply an-
other exercise in engineering, teamwork and
logistics. As the cars were racing around the
track many had already started planning the
move of team members and equipment to
the next stop on the global whirlwind,
­Montreal Canada.
The costs of competing at the top level of
Formula One are less than clear, though like-
ly the most expensive sport in the world.
FIA, the organisation behind Formula One
has mooted a budget cap of $150 million per
season (approximately $10 million per race)
to enable teams to compete. Unofficial
­rumours place the budget of Ferrari as being
around $500 million in recent years though
trumped by Toyota spending a reputed $700
million.

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